China: Son's academic pressure leads to father having a heart attack

He suffered a heart attack owing to premature coronary artery disease, which is often amplified by emotional stress.

In a recent incident, a Chinese man, apparently in his 40s, suddenly experienced chest pain and difficulty in breathing, and suffered a heart attack while tutoring his son, The South China Morning Post reported.

The son is a junior secondary school graduate, preparing for senior secondary school entrance exam.

The man, surnamed Zhang, was rushed to the hospital where he was diagnosed with acute myocardial infarction, as per local media report.

An emergency artery bypass surgery was performed on Zhang in order to save his life. He suffered the heart attack owing to premature coronary artery disease, which is often amplified by emotional stress.

The man often made sure to follow up and monitor closely his son’s schoolwork.

The report stated that the father- son duo shared a strained relationship as the teenager often felt extremely overwhelmed due to the academic pressure imposed by his father.

The son was also enrolled in several cram schools by Zhang and he himself handled the pick-up and drop to these places.

Zhang is among those Chinese parents who have suffered hospitalisation owing to the stress arising by self tutoring their children, the report said.

The publication further mentioned a similar incident from earlier this year in February. Another man named Zhejiang got too excited while making his son finish off his homework, thus causing chorioretinopathy (a condition that causes blurred or distorted vision).

Another incident took place in 2018, where a 33-year-old woman suffered a stroke after she lost her temper at her daughter who was taking a long time to finish her homework before bedtime.

Each year, the competition for admission to China’s top universities intensifies, thus Chinese parents often take their children’s academic performance very seriously.

Ling Zongwei, a Chinese education expert, advised parents to manage their emotions in a better way, fostering a better environment for their children to study, enabling the children to take responsibility for their own academics.